New User With Hardware Question (1 Viewer)

[Talven81]

Hello everyone, my GF's brother recently turned me on to MediaPortal and I have been using it since. I am fairly new to the whole media center thing.

I recently moved into a new house and due to the distance between my PC and TV I am looking for a new hardware configuration. Regretfully since I am new to the whole scene I don't know what to get or if it even exists.

What I would like is a HDTV 1080i compatible system that is wireless and will display my second video port on my TV. Before I was using a DVI to VGA cable, but DVI to component would work fine too.

I have seen the various "media centers" out there but they are usually limited to MPEG2/4 or other specific codecs. Due to the number of codecs my video use, and the fact that I would like to display my games on my TV this setup will not work. I would prefer just to display my video and use MediaPortal since it works using all the codecs and configuration I have done on FFMPEG.

Keep in mind I need wireless...

Any suggestions?

 

[zoedragon]

I'm rather new myself to the media center scene, but I've been reading voraciously. You should look into extenders. Windows Media Center has wireless extenders (hardware, like the Xbox360 is one) that allow the tv to access the HTPC. I'm sure Media Portal has something similar, I just don't know what exactly. Yeah I know, not a helpful answer, but maybe it'll point you in the right direction.

 

[Talven81]

I'm rather new myself to the media center scene, but I've been reading voraciously. You should look into extenders. Windows Media Center has wireless extenders (hardware, like the Xbox360 is one) that allow the tv to access the HTPC. I'm sure Media Portal has something similar, I just don't know what exactly. Yeah I know, not a helpful answer, but maybe it'll point you in the right direction.

Yeah from what I have looked into I don't want a setup like that. I have a PS3 and Wii which can access systems like that but so far it's seemed very unreliable. For example the codecs on the PS3 do not seem to be very fault tolerant like the codecs on the PC and frequently throw "unsupported data" or other similar errors when the video plays fine on the PC. (Yes I have attempted re-encoding under multiple settings and codecs)

On top of that they are usually restricted to certain codecs and I don't want that. As well I want to be able to play my games on the TV. So looking for a wireless DVI(or vga) to TV setup.

I've been looking around but haven't been totally happy with what I have found. Something like this though is along the right lines but the reviews are horrible.

http://www.grandtec.com/products/video/ultimatewireless.html

Any suggestions?

To give you another idea of what I'm looking for.

Just found this one that displays everything EXCEPT DirectX apps... arrgh! It was almost perfect!

SmallNetBuilder - Small Network Help - D-Link DPG-1200 PC-on-TV Review

Simple PC to TV via wireless... remote PC control a plus... why is this not more prevaliant in the market?

 

[SpudR]

Welcome Talven81!!
Am I missing something or can't you simply build (or move) your HTPC to closer to the TV and stream from shared folders?
I myself have my HTPC next to the TV and stream wirelessly from a PC upstairs (this to keep the noise down to a minimum).

OR is it that you are looking to send the stream to the TV from the HTPC?? (i.e. needing some looooong cables?)

 

[Talven81]

Well the idea is, is not running cables all over my house. I'm trying to go completely wireless. My main PC is also my media center (thing can support running everything at once, it's a powerhouse) and regretfully is nowhere near the TV due to the house layout. I have an insanely long DVI to VGA cable which works but don't really wanna run the cable all over.

I also want to keep it to one PC to reduce power consumption.

The one I mentioned above (D-Link) was almost EXACTLY what I was looking for except it won't stream DirectX applications, which means no gaming on my TV.

 

[SpudR]

I have no idea what it is like but i found this
Is this what you mean?